Amy Goldstein-Rice

"I see clay as inventive. It's a rich medium that offers a generous and tireless play of possibilities. Clay allows expression of the whimsical and the symbolic, sometimes simultaneously."

Amy Goldstein-Rice is drawn to the idea of animal as messenger, interweaving her ideals about her life with classical folk tales and animal imagery of the Native Americans. The animals become talismans that represent or tell a story of some little obsession, vivid dream, or concerns of the world--with a grain of satire. This has been a starting point.

Each clay piece is fired to cone 04 and is made by a technique of altering wheel-thrown shapes. Additions of hand-built shapes are attached to form legs, the tail, and other details of the animal form. Sculpting of the features is done almost entirely by hand, using modest tools. Surface decoration is achieved when textural marks are infused with layers of engobe, slip, and commercial underglaze.

Goldstein-Rice received her B.A. in studio art from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga and studied ceramics at notable arts and crafts schools. After graduation, she joined the staff at the Spartanburg Arts Council as their artist-in-residence. During her years there she conducted adult pottery classes, promoted the visual arts through the visiting arts program in the public schools, and established a pottery studio.